Plate or block for parquet floors.



No. 745,554. PATENTED DEC. 1,1903.

0. AMENDT.

PLATE OR BLOCK FOR PARQUET FLOORS.

APPLIUATIOH FILED NOV. 25, 1902. N0 MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

THE NQHRS van-ms co. momwmm sum-mm. u; c.

No.745,554. 7 PATENTED 1320.1,1903.

c. A-MBNDT.

PLATE 0R BLOCK FOR PAR'QUET FLOORS APPLIOATION FILED K0126 1902. no 10921.. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

m: mums PEYERS coy, PHOYO-LHHL}, WASHMGTON, a o

UNITED STATES Patented December 1 1903.

PAT NT OEEICE.

PLATE OR BLOCK FOR PARQUET FLOORS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 745,554, dated December 1, 1903. 7

Application filed November 25, 1902. Serial No. 132,810. (No model.)

To 05% whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL AMENDT, manufacturer, a subject of the Grand Duke of Hesse, residing at Oppenheim-on-the-Rhine, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Plates or Blocks for Parquet Floors, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The present invention relates to plates or blocks for parquet floors, and has for'its object various improvements in the construction of the same.

There are already plates for parquet floors which are composed of a number of narrow slabs or little boards joined together to form one compound plate by means of a backing or coat of asphalt, which is poured over them in a hot and liquid state and forms when cooled down a hard and stifE mass, which holds the slab or little boards firmly together. (See Swiss patent Specification No. 16,488.) Parquet blocks or plates of this kind are intended to do away with the inconvenience of boiling the asphalt and of carrying kettles and material for making a tire when so-called asphalt parquet-s are to be. laidthat is to say, when the small slabs are put together in the building to form a parquet floor by being singly one by one in their proper order pressed into the hot and liquid asphalt upon a foundation of concrete or any other suit able foundation. Though these compound plates with their coating of asphalt ready to be laid on the floor are well enough suited for doing away with the above-mentioned inconveniences of asphalt parquetings they still have the disadvantage of requiring a costly foundation of beton or concrete, and, moreover, they require a thick backing of asphalt,because this is necessary not only for isolation, but also for holding the parts together.

' If the layer of asphalt were thinand only suficiently strong for the purpose of isolation, it would easily break in transport or at the slightest shock or incautious handling and the blocks or plates would fall to pieces. On the other side, however, if'thelayer of asphalt were thick the cost of the blocks would bematerially increased.

The object of this invention is to form by means of a combination of devices which singly taken are already known a parquet fiooriug-blockwhich will have great advantages over blocks of this kind now in use not only from the point of view of technical qualities, but also and quite especially with regard to cheapness. This I attain by providing not only the little slabs or boards which compose the blocks, but also the blocks themselves on their fianks,with grooves into which tongues engage, and by having the lower surface of the blocks thus composed coated with a thin layer of asphalt of only the thickness required for isolation. This coating can take place in the factory. By means of the tongues, which tightly engage into the grooves of all the slabs and blocks, the dooring when laid becomes so firmly rabbeted together that it forms one single stiff and closly-jointed plaque or covering, which does not, like asphalt parquets or parquetingblocks of the above-described kind, require a foundation of concrete. A layer of sand of onlya few centimeters thickness stamped and leveled a very cheap foundation, therefore, suffices. The stamping and leveling are necessary in order to obtain a perfectly plane or level surface and entirely prevent the sinking of single slabs or blocks which might be caused by safes, pianos, beds, or other heavy objects. With a leveled foundation nosinking is possible, for if any pressure on any part of the flooring takes place this pressure is communicated through the tongues with which all the slabs and blocks are jointed together to the neighboring slabs and blocks, and thus to the whole flooring, and is therefore distributed over a great surface, the consequence of which is that even if the foundation (the sand) be yielding on the whole a yielding in any single spot, and consequently sinking'of single slabs into the foundation, cannot take place, because, as already said, the pressure is distributed over the Whole floor. Just on this account for preventing a sinking of the door it was necessary with asphalt-parqnets and parqnets formed of blocks held together by a backing of asphalt to have a stiff and resisting foundation, (an expensive bottom of concrete,) upon which was placed a layer of asphalt and then the slabs or strips, for it is evident that if instead of a foundationof beton' or concrete a foundation of stamped sand were used, the same as for the flooring which forms the subject of this application for Letters Patent, the single slabs or plates, which are not held together in any other way than by a layer of asphalt on their bottom surface, would yield under a heavy weight and would gradually sink deeper into the foundation of sand, the brittle layer of as phalt would break, and the plate would thus become disjointed and dislodged by any pressure upon it. These drawbacks willeven show themselves with a foundation of concrete, as and especially in summer or in overheated rooms the asphalt very often becomes soft and will then easily yield to pressure, and plates or blocks heavily weighted would sink into it, necessitating costly repairs to remedy these defects.

Figures 1 to 8 of the subjoined drawings, in which similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views, will serve to illustrate the subject of this application.

Figs. 1, 6, and 7 show a ground plan of parquet blocks ready for being coated with asphalt and of the usual shape. Fig. 2 shows a cross-section of Fig. 1 through the line X X. Figs. 3 and 4 show plan views of single plates or strips. Fig. 5 shows a plan view in crosssection through the block shown in Fig. 1. Figs. 6 and 7 show corner-supports on the back of two blocks, and Fig. 8 shows a floor composed of single blocks.

With a are marked the single little boards or plates which compose the block B. b marks the joints. All the flanks of the little boards a, as well as of the blocks B,.are provided with grooves 0, into which tightly fitting tongues 01 engage, which in this way unite the single plates or to form the blocks B and the latter to form the whole floor. The lower sides or backs of the single plates may further be provided with grooves for the purpose of giving a firmer hold to the asphalt covering, which is put on in a liquid state and only a few millimeters thick when the plates have been jointed together into a block. As the little plates are closely jointed by means of the grooves and tongues into a tight, stifi, and strong block of great resisting power before the asphalt is put on, it is an easy matterto see that all the blocks become also closely jointed and that no interstices will be found in the flooring. It is also possible to prepare the blocks faultlessly and when necessary by grinding or planing before putting on the asphalt, whereas with the blocks without tongues and grooves this can be done only after putting on the asphalt, in which operation the plane-iron is frequently damaged by the sandy asphalt. If one wishes to make quite sure that the blocks will not later on become warped, it is advisable to nail triangular pieces of sheet metal on the back of the block in the corners before pouring on the cement.

Owing to the tight fittingof the little plates and the perfectly level plane obtained by means of the grooves and tongues, the whole flooring when laid onafoundation of stamped sand presents avery pleasing uniform aspect and is exceedingly pleasant to walk on. On the other side, it is easy by pulling out the tongues to remove single plates or blocks or the whole floor can be taken up and put into another room. All these advantages, especially the reduced cost in consequence of doing away with the concrete foundation, arise from this system of joining all parts by means of tongues-a system, it is true, known long ago for the so-called false-bottom parquet and the ordinary plank floors, but which in its application to asphalt parquets is a perfect novelty of great importance.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

The combination with a sand base of compound slabs, each made up of a group of individual strips or blocks united into a slab by tongues engaging grooves in said strips or blocks, such slabs being united in the floor by tongues engaging peripheral grooves in the slabs and the elements of each slab further united into a slab by a thin coating of asphalt adapting the slab to be laid directly upon the sand base.

In witness whereof I subscribe my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CARL AMENDT.

Witnesses:

JEAN GRUND, CARL GRUND. 

